Weight fluctuation?

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jessicaallen0503
jessicaallen0503 Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I weigh myself when I wake up every day. I know people say you should only weigh yourself once per week but I find it to be a great motivator, to get out of bed and see what that scale says. I've only been tracking calories and exercising since 7/22 and I'm down 15 lbs, so it definitely gets me revved up to see the scale drop. However, for about a week now it seems like one day I'm up half a pound, the next day I'm down. In the end, if I do the math, I am still losing, slowly, but is it normal to fluctuate so much from day to day? It's really frustrating.

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
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    Yes, this is completely normal and it's exactly why people say you should weigh once a week instead of every day. Either learn to love the fluctuations or hide the scale from yourself for a week!
  • flitabout
    flitabout Posts: 200 Member
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    Oh Yeah!!!! don't weigh yourself after you eat lots of salt you'll go threw the roof! I once had what appeared to be a 7 lb gain over night!
  • becktacular90
    becktacular90 Posts: 55 Member
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    The bigger you are, the bigger the fluctuations too... One week I fluctuated 15lbs from one day to the next! :)
  • 4daluvof_candice
    4daluvof_candice Posts: 483 Member
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    I weigh myself about twice a month then the week of and after TOM forget it I'm not putting myself thru that, LOL! after those two weeks I always see a, what I call, an "actual loss" in weight.
  • Roxanne_Hennessy
    Roxanne_Hennessy Posts: 130 Member
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    I weigh myself every morning and evening(Right before I go to bed) you can see some really fun fluctuatiuons then. I once gained 10lbs overnight
  • GloriaOHara
    GloriaOHara Posts: 1
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    yes. I can go up and down as much as 3 pounds a day. they tell met this is water. I am not so sure. It does work out in the end.:wink:
  • BHKLEIN
    BHKLEIN Posts: 104
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    This is very normal. I track my weight every day as well. Most days I'll be down but every now and then it will go up a bit. Esp. around that time of the month. My weight only fluctautes a lbs or less though. I don't seem to have those drastic weight fluctuations that some seem to have. There's a lot of factors that go in to this fluctuation: what you eat, how much you exercise, overall daily activities, sleep, stress, menstrual cycle, etc...... if your weight is going down overall your doing a good job! :)
  • rainydays5
    rainydays5 Posts: 217 Member
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    I was weighing myself multiple times a day but last week decided to wait 2 weeks (until August 14th) but I couldn't make it and weighed myself this morning. I needed some motivation and boy did I get it. I lost 3 lbs! Anyway, if it doesn't bother you to see the fluctuation go right ahead and weigh yourself but it is normal to see that.
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    I love weighing myself every morning for exactly that reason, the fluctuations. Yes, they are totally normal.

    I like seeing them on a day to day basis because it gives me a much more realistic idea of my weight on a whole. It also shows things that immediately effect me as well as helping me spot patterns to be able to correct them.

    For example, I can be right on in calories and macros, but if I blew out my salt for the day, I usually see a one to two pound jump on the scale the next day.

    Or, when I was weighing myself weekly, I thought I'd just stalled because I kept floating around the same pound for weeks and weeks. When I starting weighing daily, I discovered that the cheat meal/day that I was having the evening that I weighed myself was jumping the scale up a few pounds and then I spent the entire next week "losing" it again. So I stopped have a weekly cheat and that cycle stopped. But I may not have discovered the issue for much longer without daily weighing.

    It also makes me feel more comfortable in the long run about the little fluctuations. Because I know that as long as I stay on track, I'll keep heading the direction I want. And when I get to my final goal, I'll know not to stress about a few pounds because I already know it's perfectly normal for my body.
  • jetlag
    jetlag Posts: 800 Member
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    I love weighing myself every morning for exactly that reason, the fluctuations. Yes, they are totally normal.

    I like seeing them on a day to day basis because it gives me a much more realistic idea of my weight on a whole. It also shows things that immediately effect me as well as helping me spot patterns to be able to correct them.

    For example, I can be right on in calories and macros, but if I blew out my salt for the day, I usually see a one to two pound jump on the scale the next day.


    ^^^ This. For me, I think it's crucial to understand your body, and I can't see how you can do that weighing weekly. If you get a gain on your weigh in day, how can you possibly know what it really is if you don't know what you weighed every other day?

    To each their own, obviously, but I don't think it's fair to make people feel guilty about weighing daily. I'm not saying that's happening in this thread, but I have seen it here.
  • junejadesky
    junejadesky Posts: 524 Member
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    We fluctuate all day every day. We eat, drink, and so on... this is why it's best to just weigh in once a week.
  • phjorg1
    phjorg1 Posts: 642 Member
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    Try this. Weigh yourself. Then drink 1l of water and weigh yourself again. Zomg, you just gained 2lbs!!! Obviously your diet is not working right??
  • SinomenJen
    SinomenJen Posts: 262 Member
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    Sodium hates me....I fluctuate up to a 5lb gain, I am glad I weigh daily, it has helped me catch what causes false highs and lets me see the trends.
  • TheCaren
    TheCaren Posts: 894 Member
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    Weigh every day if you want to. But accept that water weight and other factors are going to cause daily fluctuations that will probably drive you nuts in time.

    I weigh in once a week, same day, same time. If I weigh in on that day and the scale is much higher than it should be (I know I've eaten right all week and there is no logical explanation for a weight gain) I might weigh in daily for the next couple days just to give myself the comfort of knowing that "fake weight" has disappeared. It's a mind game for me. Because I know on weigh in day it's not real weight.

    That's why you log everything you eat, without fail. So you can go all week knowing you're doing the right thing, and get that surprise on weigh in day as to the impact your better eating habits/exercise habits are having. Or if you're eating like cr@p, you can assess where it is you're going wrong and make adjustments.
  • miqisha
    miqisha Posts: 1,534 Member
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    That is why some people don't weigh daily, if this is something you want to continue doing, then you will have to get use to the fluctuations.

    Personally I weigh weekly, to each his own

    We had a party weekend and went out, so I knew well enough not to go anywhere near the scale on Monday, went back to my regular eating and workout and drinking tons of water. Will weigh on Friday

    Good luck!!!!!
  • tm82001
    tm82001 Posts: 133 Member
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    You've only been tracking/losing since 7/22 (for 16 days) and have lost 15 pounds....there is nothing slow about that at all. Weight variations are very normal. Be happy with your loss so far and only weigh yourself once a week.
  • ttknowles01
    ttknowles01 Posts: 255 Member
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    I love weighing myself every morning for exactly that reason, the fluctuations. Yes, they are totally normal.

    I like seeing them on a day to day basis because it gives me a much more realistic idea of my weight on a whole. It also shows things that immediately effect me as well as helping me spot patterns to be able to correct them.

    For example, I can be right on in calories and macros, but if I blew out my salt for the day, I usually see a one to two pound jump on the scale the next day.

    Or, when I was weighing myself weekly, I thought I'd just stalled because I kept floating around the same pound for weeks and weeks. When I starting weighing daily, I discovered that the cheat meal/day that I was having the evening that I weighed myself was jumping the scale up a few pounds and then I spent the entire next week "losing" it again. So I stopped have a weekly cheat and that cycle stopped. But I may not have discovered the issue for much longer without daily weighing.

    It also makes me feel more comfortable in the long run about the little fluctuations. Because I know that as long as I stay on track, I'll keep heading the direction I want. And when I get to my final goal, I'll know not to stress about a few pounds because I already know it's perfectly normal for my body.

    ^^^ this :-)
  • mjga2043
    mjga2043 Posts: 23 Member
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    I love weighing myself every morning for exactly that reason, the fluctuations. Yes, they are totally normal.

    I like seeing them on a day to day basis because it gives me a much more realistic idea of my weight on a whole. It also shows things that immediately effect me as well as helping me spot patterns to be able to correct them.

    For example, I can be right on in calories and macros, but if I blew out my salt for the day, I usually see a one to two pound jump on the scale the next day.

    Or, when I was weighing myself weekly, I thought I'd just stalled because I kept floating around the same pound for weeks and weeks. When I starting weighing daily, I discovered that the cheat meal/day that I was having the evening that I weighed myself was jumping the scale up a few pounds and then I spent the entire next week "losing" it again. So I stopped have a weekly cheat and that cycle stopped. But I may not have discovered the issue for much longer without daily weighing.

    It also makes me feel more comfortable in the long run about the little fluctuations. Because I know that as long as I stay on track, I'll keep heading the direction I want. And when I get to my final goal, I'll know not to stress about a few pounds because I already know it's perfectly normal for my body.

    This is why I weigh daily as well. I feel like it keeps me more in check even with those small fluctuations.
  • kampshm
    kampshm Posts: 93 Member
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    I know exactly how you feel. If I wake up in the morning and see a loss on the scale, I'm all excited to start my day! But seeing a gain is really frustrating and for me, makes me want to give up.

    So I guess you have to ask yourself if that excitement of seeing a loss is worth the risk of feeling depressed and upset when its a gain. Atleast thats how I'm thinking about it. That, and it'll be a much bigger loss after a week which will be even more exciting to see! (hopefully!)
  • cowgirlupkelly
    cowgirlupkelly Posts: 51
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    ^^^ This. For me, I think it's crucial to understand your body, and I can't see how you can do that weighing weekly. If you get a gain on your weigh in day, how can you possibly know what it really is if you don't know what you weighed every other day?

    While I agree that anyone can weight as many times a day/week as they want as long as the know that fluctuations can and do occur. If they can not let that bother them more power to them.

    If you show a gain on your weigh in day you should be able to tell why that happened if you are tracking ---

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